Business Ethics and Sustainability: Document Falsification Analysis

This essay delves into the critical intersection of business ethics and sustainability, exploring the implications of document falsification within the corporate landscape. It begins by defining business ethics and its relevance in a globalized world, highlighting the ethical challenges faced by companies and the importance of establishing ethical principles. The essay then examines the concept of business sustainability, using McDonald's as a case study to illustrate corporate social responsibility practices, including their commitment to ethical sourcing, community support, and employee welfare. It further analyzes leading ethical theories, such as consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics, providing a comparative analysis of their principles. The essay also addresses the legal and ethical consequences of document falsification for employees, individuals, and institutions, emphasizing the severity of these offenses. Finally, it underscores the importance of ethical conduct for businesses to achieve sustainability and maintain a positive corporate image.

Running head: BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY 1
Business Ethics and Sustainability
Student’s name
Institutional affiliation

BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY 2
Business Ethics and Sustainability
Introduction
Business ethics defines the ground and guidelines regarding business
activities, situations, and decisions thus address the issues relating to wrong and right.
The business ethics covers beyond commercial businesses because it encompasses
pressure groups, government organizations, charities, and non-profit businesses.
Although law and ethics could have a relationship, it has proved difficult to get a
definitive right answer to various ethical issues in business (Soba & Aydin, 2011).
Nonetheless, studying business ethics can help an individual to make the best
decision, not the right decisions. With this confusion, it is important to define ethical
theory, ethics, and morality. Document falsification as evident in the business
environment raises the question of ethics, morality and ethical theory (Karabach &
Berggren, 2016). This serious crime can attract a serious implication to the individuals
involved. It further identifies the consequences of forging documents or plagiarism in
institutions. This paper focuses on business ethics and sustainability regarding
document falsification.
Business Ethics, Sustainability, and Globalization
In the business environment, ethical and moral problems have emerged.
Studies have indicated that many companies have established ethical principles to
examine the situations. Business ethics applies to any business, organization, and
individual conducts. In daily life, the ethical decision remains an obligation of in
education, government, and business (Hadi, Paino, & & Pauzi, 2015). Recently,
companies have experienced ethical issues and scandals. Following the adoption of a
global village, the impact of financial scandal associated with ethical conduct has
affected many businesses and governments (Crane & Matten., 2016). For instance,

BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY 3
with globalization, the growth of businesses became inevitable. Conversely, with
these new opportunities, the companies began to face various business malpractices
including money laundering, child labour, product duplication, and environmental
issues. Cybercrimes, patent thefts, intellectual property theft, and sexual harassment
became a business issue in the new millennium (Clifton & Amran, 2011). With
globalization, the international trade and investments have improved because of the
interdependence of countries. The advancement of technology has encouraged
competition leading to ethical malpractices including forgery and falsification of
documents.
The need to address these serious challenges remains critical to businesses,
individuals, and governments. Companies like McDonald have incorporated business
ethics to define their strategic business practices and alliances. By making business
ethics part of their operations, the companies have managed to make strategic
decisions thus bolster their competitiveness in the market. The move has further
enabled these companies to create a healthy workplace climate and attract the top
talents leading to a healthy competition and good profits (Pyke, 2014). Unfortunately,
following the serious deterioration of values, violence, practices, corruption, egoism,
and looking for wealth, everyone is hell-bent to race to earn. Studies have indicated
that ethics is important because it protects the society and ensures the business attains
sustainability and profitability (Hitt, Ireland, & Hoskisson, 2015). It corresponds to
the needs of workers and allows the management to make the right decisions.
However, understanding this concept of business ethics and sustainability has proved
difficult. To this effect, it is important to compare and contrast various ethical
theories.
Aspects of Business Sustainability: Case of McDonald

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Corporate social responsibility is part of ethical business practice in the
modern world. In fact, it forms the cardinal values that businesses must consider to
remain sustainable and competitive as evident in McDonald. McDonald’s has
established a corporate social responsibility policy to determine its market position
(Dudovskiy, 2016). The firm affirms that social responsibilities determine its
competitiveness. McDonald’s restaurant has identified its aspirational goals that
measure its sustainable food packaging, sourcing, and operating in an environmentally
efficient society. The company focuses on supporting the local communities. The
restaurant intends to achieve this goal by supporting its charity organization to
improve lives of the needy like children. This involves addressing various needs to
children including education (Dudovskiy, 2016). It also empowers and educates
workers. Based on its 2014 survey, 83 percent of its managers held that McDonald’s
is the best place to work. The company has also invested in its seven campuses that
offer training for its employees, managers, and Franchisees.
The company also values its business ethics because it has established policies
to guide its human and labour rights. McDonald’s restaurant has compelled its
suppliers to comply with the code of conducts. It has also forced its suppliers to
clarify the requirements of the firm in addressing human rights, business integrity,
workplace environment, and environmental management (Singh, 2010). It further
promotes employee health and safety because it has a policy that serves its workforce.
Regarding the gender equality, McDonald’s has ensured that women and minorities
hold at least 27 percent of senior positions. In fact, 25 percent of managers are women
across its restaurants (Dudovskiy, 2016). Responsible sourcing is also an important
consideration for the firm. The firm’s offers including vegetables, fruits, whole grains,
and low-fat dairy have increased. The company’s final sustainable principles and

BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY 5
criteria for beef have earned it accolades worldwide. By 2014, the firm’s coffee
sources and fisheries were verified to be sustainable sources. These actions confirm
its effort to maintain business ethics.
McDonald’s social responsibility report shows that the company values the
trust of its stakeholders. With this asset to its business, the firm has invested heavily
in supporting the local community. The important involvement of the company in
community activities includes the establishment of Ronald McDonald’s House
Charities (New, 2015). Through this program, the organization has supported various
families and children in need. Through the business ethics efforts, McDonald’s has
invested in Macca’s and the community. For instance, it continues to monitor
environmental impacts of its operations in the community. With these monitoring
efforts, it has managed to improve its operations. McDonald also embraces ethical
responsibility because it understands its influence in the society. The company values
price and quality to define its ethical responsibility. For instance, its supplier system
remains responsible thus motivate its customers. The firm is focused on doing the
right thing that continues to motivate its customers (McDonald's, 2012). To remain
responsible, it incessantly audits the supplier workplace accountability thus protects
the safety, health, and rights of employees.
Ethical Theories
The leading ethical theories that have defined the philosophy classes include
virtue, deontology, and consequential ethics. According to various findings,
consequentialism is a theory that revolves around the judgment of human practices
depending on the consequences (Al-Aidaros, Shamsudin, & Idris, 2013). For instance,
human practices with good consequences are viewed as moral while those with
negative impacts are judged as wrong. The consequentialists believe that individuals

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should practice certain actions because of their good consequences. To this effect,
individuals who falsify documents or engage in business malpractices are judged by
consequentialists as wrong because such actions lead to bad consequences
(McDonald, 2014). In the deontological theory, consequences are irrelevant because it
judges human practices depending on the consistency with specific duties regarded as
intrinsically moral. With this theory, the motive of forging a document or plagiarizing
has to consider when judging human behaviours (Cote, Latham, & Sanders, 2013).
For instance, forging document or fraud would be morally right if the motive was
self-interest.
On the other hand, virtue ethics focuses on character instead of rules or
individual actions as a way to define the ethical concept. The virtue ethics values
courage, honesty, integrity, generosity, and temperance. With these characters, it is
possible to evaluate the actions. Therefore, individuals should practice certain actions
based on good characters.
Based on these normative ethical theories, it is evident that each theory
articulates different principles. The consequentialism views ethics as right action and
good consequences (Karabag, 2016). The deontology uses duties to define the ethics
instead of consequences, while the virtue ethics value both duties and consequences.
For an objectivism, immorality is the act of avoiding objective self-sustaining values
based on the rational principles of action.
Consequences
Employees and Individuals
Forging or falsifying documents is a criminal offense across the world. In the
last two years, fraud or document forgery has increased by over twenty percent
(Nedim, 2014 ). Today, among the biggest fraud actions include the unauthorized use

BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY 7
of debit and credit cards, forged documents, and identity theft are affecting the
business community. False document and forgery are distinct offenses because it
depends on whether the crime involves private organization, individual, or
Commonwealth entity. In a case involving a Commonwealth entity, the prosecution
has the burden of proof to justify the use of this forged documents and the intention
(Ismail, 2015). For instance, the prosecution should prove that the accused person
intended to obtain financial gain dishonestly thus influencing the process.
The accused person can use the forged documents to lie to a Commonwealth
official. Similarly, an individual can use these forged documents on other devices like
computers or online thus claim the document is genuine. This is a Commonwealth
offense whenever an individual uses the false document to defraud the commonwealth
entities like Centerlink or Medicare. Based on the Crime Act of 1958 (83A),
individuals who engage in forgery are guilty and should be liable to ten years
imprisonment (Nedim, 2014 ). The NSW Crimes Act (254) provides information that
can be used to handle forged document matters involving individuals or private
organizations. Under this Act, an accused person will be charged in a district of local
courts, not the Supreme Court to answer to the forgery offense. With the Crimes Act
of 2010, it has become possible to prosecute individuals committing fraud and forgery
offenses (Nedim, 2014 ).
The false document offenses attract ten years imprisonment. However, the
prosecutor must prove that the accused person was aware of the documents were false
and the individual deliberately used the document dishonestly to gainful purposes.
Under “Section 250 of the Crimes Act” (Nedim, 2014 , p. 1), an individual without
the authorization of the genuine owner makes a forged or false document. The law
rarely spares anybody found in possession of such documents or equipment founded

BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY 8
on false documentation because they stand liable to ten years imprisonment.
Students
In academic institutions, cheating or plagiarism is an acceptable conduct in the
institution (Berlinck, 2011). In Brazil, fom instance, the higher educational
institutions are compelled to create guidelines to help in detect and inhibit academic
cheating. In most cases, the learning institutions have imposed different penalties
including legal sanctions and warning to students engaged in such actions. For
academic plagiarism, the institution or faculty can assign a student a zero mark to the
assignment or exam the student has copied (Masic, 2012 ). The institution can also
fail the student in the courses, especially in a repeat case of copying after warning.
Similarly, the student can be suspended periods. However, when the institution finds
that the student has engaged in an extensive plagiarism, expulsion could be the best
bet (Kalani & Twinwal, 2013). This justifies the seriousness of this academic
malpractice. Sometimes the institution can revoke the title of a student for engaging in
plagiarism.
Institutions
Apart from the consequences on the student, plagiarism taints the corporate
image to the institution (Salleh, Ghazali , Awang, & Sapiai , 2012). In the modern
business environment, companies use their corporate image to gain competitive
advantage. For universities, the distinct images put them at a competitive position in
the market. Indeed, these institutions have incessantly increased their investments to
strengthen their quality and image. Studies have indicated that many customers value
functional image, institutional image, and commodity image (Salleh, Ghazali ,
Awang, & Sapiai , 2012). They expect the institutions to produce students who can fit
the market. However, when it is evident that most of the students have forged their

BUSINESS ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY 9
documents or engaged in academic malpractices, they develop negative attitudes
towards the institutions.
Conclusion
Forgery, fraud, and falsification of documents are viewed as serious crimes in
which the accused intends to defraud others. In most cases, courts have handled issues
regarding forging documents by the culprit. Businesses like McDonald’s have
established business ethics to detect and caution workers to beware of the
consequences of such ethical issues. The paper has further contrasted ethical theories
relating to the document falsification. It has thus provided the consequences of this
unethical act on individuals. As indicated in the paper, students and researchers have
ostensibly plagiarized their work to gain a positive advantage. In fact, plagiarism is an
ethical issue that requires a swift redress. As part of unethical behaviours, the
company executives have awarded themselves huge bonuses and engaged in insider
trading for personal interests. The companies and businesses have responded to this
malpractice by investing in corporate governance.

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